Australia forces Big Tech firms to pay for news or face a 2.25% tax

· media policy · Source ↗

TLDR

  • Australia’s draft News Bargaining Incentive bill levies 2.25% on local revenues of Meta, Google, and TikTok unless they pay news publishers directly.

Key Facts

  • The 2.25% levy drops to 1.5% if platforms strike enough commercial deals with Australian media outlets.
  • Sufficient deals could return between A$200 million and A$250 million annually to Australian journalism.
  • Unlike the 2021 News Media Bargaining Code, the new law taxes platforms whether or not they carry news, closing the loophole Meta exploited in 2024.
  • AI services are explicitly excluded from the bill’s scope; the government says AI is being handled through separate policy forums.

Why It Matters

  • The no-opt-out structure directly addresses the failure mode of the 2021 Code, which Meta bypassed by removing news content.
  • Prime Minister Albanese dismissed White House pressure, signaling Australia intends to proceed despite U.S. tariff threats over digital services taxes.

Kate Park, TechCrunch · 2026-04-28 · Read the original

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